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Concept

Pure prayer

Prayer free of images and thoughts, in which the mind stands before God: the summit of the desert monks’ way.
Ancient Greek, Desert Monasticism
kathara proseuchē καθαρὰ προσευχή

Definition

Pure prayer is the desert monks’ name for prayer in which the mind is free not only of passions but of all images and concepts, even of God. Evagrius Ponticus describes it as the laying aside of thoughts: the mind, “naked”, stands before God, sees its own light, and knows God without form. He warns against imagining God in any shape during prayer, and against seeking visions.

John Cassian describes a “fiery prayer”, beyond words, which the soul pours out to God in a moment, and which the short, repeated verse of scripture prepares. In the Syriac tradition Isaac of Nineveh speaks of a prayer that goes beyond prayer into wonder and silence. In Byzantine hesychasm, pure prayer became the prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer joined to the breath, in which the mind descends into the heart and is united with it.

Comparable ideas appear in other traditions in the meditation without object of some Buddhist and Hindu schools, though there the goal is described in other terms. In the Christian sources pure prayer remains a relation, the mind before God, however imageless.

In the traditions

Desert Monasticism

For Evagrius, prayer as the laying aside of thoughts, without images of God; for Cassian, a wordless “fiery prayer”.

Hesychasm

The prayer of the heart, in which the mind descends into the heart through the Jesus Prayer and rests there.

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Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Pure prayer.” Concept. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/pure-prayer.

Chicago (note)

“Pure prayer,” concept, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/pure-prayer.

MLA

“Pure prayer.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/pure-prayer.

BibTeX
@misc{concepts-pure-prayer,
  title = {{Pure prayer}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Concept. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/pure-prayer}
}

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